Gurnee cops 'pleaded' with armed woman before fatally shooting her when she became 'erratic,' officials say

Makell Meyerin, 31, of Antioch, shown in a 2013 photo, died from multiple gunshot wounds following a confrontation with police in Gurnee on Wednesday, May 23, according to the Lake County Coroner's Office. (Lake County sheriff)

A woman shot and killed by Gurnee police officers as she walked along Route 41 allegedly brandishing a rifle on Wednesday was identified Thursday as a 31-year-old Antioch woman.

Makell Meyerin died of multiple gunshot wounds at 2:33 p.m. Wednesday after being transported from the scene of the shooting to Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville, according to a statement issued late Thursday afternoon by Lake County Coroner Howard Cooper.

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Cooper added that routine toxicology tests are being conducted as both his office and the Lake County Major Crimes Task Force continue to investigate the incident. He also said that Meyerin was shot "less than five times." He did not elaborate.

Earlier on Thursday, authorities said that two Gurnee officers “pleaded” with Meyerin for several minutes to put down the rifle she was holding before her behavior became “erratic” and officers fired as she walked towards them.

“The officers negotiated for several minutes and pleaded with her to put the gun down,” said Christopher Covelli, spokesman for the Lake County Major CrimesTask Force. “At one point, she approached a stopped vehicle and went to the driver’s side, but the person in the vehicle was able to back up away from her.”

Covelli added that “is unknown what she was doing,” but her “erratic behavior” increased before she was shot by the police officers.

Earlier on Thursday, authorities reported that there was a connection between the events surrounding the shooting in Gurnee and police activity Wednesday morning in Antioch in which people barricaded themselves for hours in an apartment along Route 83.

“There was indeed a connection,” Covelli said, in that Meyerin had been a passenger in a vehicle involved in the early morning Antioch incident. In addition, a man found slumped over in a car in a Gurnee park prior to the police shooting was the driver of the vehicle involved in the Antioch confrontation.

That man, according to authorities, was Jordan Huff, 37, of the 40500 block of North Main Street, Antioch Township. He was charged with aggravated fleeing and eluding, criminal damage to state supported property and resisting a police officer, Covelli said.

Jordan Huff, 37, of Antioch Township, was charged with aggravated fleeing and eluding, criminal damage to state supported property and resisting a police officer, after two incidents in Lake County on May 23. (Antioch Police Department)

Authorities said the series of events that ended with Meyerin being fatally shot by police began early Wednesday morning when police were called about a man and woman knocking on doors and asking for money in Antioch.

When police attempted to stop a vehicle in which the solicitors were believed to be riding in, authorities said, it rammed an Antioch police car and got away.

Through investigation, the task force investigators learned that there were three people in the vehicle that rammed the police vehicle. Witnesses said a long rifle was stuck out the passenger window and a round was fired as the vehicle sped away, Covelli said.

The vehicle was subsequently reported to police driving erratically on Route 83 before it parked at an apartment house. One woman went inside an apartment, while a man and woman believed to be Huff and Meyerin fled the area on foot and eventually got a vehicle from one of Huff’s relatives, Covelli said.

After an hours-long standoff, a man and woman inside the apartment were taken into custody without further incident. Charges against the woman had yet to be announced as of Thursday evening. The man taken into custody at the Antioch Township apartment was determined to not be involved in the police car crash incident earlier and he was released, Covelli said.

The Gurnee confrontation started Wednesday afternoon when someone called 911 dispatch to report a suspicious car with a bullet hole in it at the corner of Harper Avenue and Gould Street.

Officers arrived to find Huff unconscious inside, and an ambulance was called to the scene. However, Meyerin then drove off and hit a Gurnee Fire Department vehicle arriving at the scene, and then crashed the vehicle into some trees at Chittenden Park about six blocks away, according to reports. She then fled on foot onto Route 41.

Covelli said officers set up a perimeter and discovered Meyer walking in the southbound lanes of Route 41, where two officers were involved in engaging her. She was armed with a long-barreled firearm which she was waiving in the air, he said.

He added that he did not have any information on the number of shots fired by police, and whether both officers or just one struck her with gunfire.

After the shooting, he said, “The Gurnee police officers attempted to give her medical aid before paramedics arrived and took her to the hospital,” where she was later pronounced dead. Huff was transported by ambulance to a hospital for treatment.

The two officers were taken by ambulance to be checked out at an area hospital as a precaution. They have been placed on administrative leave pending the results of the investigation, according to Covelli.

The Major Crime Task Force was called into the Gurnee investigation because there was an officer-involved shooting.

Meanwhile, authorities said their investigation determined that a Monday armed robbery of a NorStates Bank in Gurnee, where a man and a woman wearing red face masks robbed the bank armed with an AK-47, according to the FBI, was not connected to Wednesday’s incidents.

News-Sun reporter Jim Newton contributed.

Investigators with the Lake County Major Crimes Task Force joined Gurnee police at the scene of a shooting on Route 41 on Wednesday, May 23. (Joe Shuman / News-Sun)